Ribbon cutting to mark opening of Henderson Municipal Service Center

The city of Henderson Municipal Service Center is located at 1449 Corporate Court in the Henderson Corporate Park, off of Sand Lane and next to the Newman recreation complex.(Photo: Douglas White / The Gleaner)Buy Photo

After a 10-year journey of formulating a plan for a City of Henderson Municipal Service Center, a ribbon-cutting hosted by Kyndle on Wednesday, Oct. 18, will celebrate the move into the transformed former Hugh Edward Sandefur Training Center building.

The 51,358-square-foot main building, which is located in Henderson Corporate Park, will house multiple divisions of the Public Works and Gas departments, the special projects office, a central garage and other services. It has a large training room for testing, Human Resources programs and other activities.

The renovation of the building began in April 2016, and the various city departments and divisions have been slowly relocating to the building over the past few weeks. The cost estimate for the renovation was $6.37 million.

Originally, the city had pursued a plan to build a new Municipal Services Center from the ground up on a tract of land it purchased on Zion Road. But cost estimates based on design, which also would have included the Henderson Water Utility offices, were more than $25 million and prohibitive. That tract has since been sold, except for the tract on which historic Springhill Cemetery lies.

In late 2014, the city was approached about the possibility of acquiring the Sandefur property. That organization was looking for a smaller and more manageable building.

Once that acquisition was made in 2015 at a cost of $1.92 million, the city began looking at the best modifications and uses for the site.

The project was needed because the Public Works office on Outer Fifth Street, constructed in the 1960s, was outdated and had been through numerous floods before improvements were made to the Canoe Creek drainage system. The city has been looking to build a new a new public works facility for more than 20 years.

Almost every service previously conducted at the Fifth Street building has moved to the Municipal Service Center, though sand and salt storage and snow plowing equipment will remain.

The ribbon-cutting is set for 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Oct. 18. The City of Henderson Municipal Service Center is located at 1449 Corporate Court in the Henderson Corporate Park.